It can seem daunting to decide when to take the MCAT and what MCAT date to choose. Is there a month you need to sign up by? Does taking a gap year affect when you should take your MCAT? How do retakes factor into the schedule? Just tell me when I should take the MCAT!
Unfortunately, there’s no single “best time to take the MCAT exam.” There are numerous personal factors that determine when your test day should be, so no two timelines will be the same. However, we can help you crack the code and determine when you should take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).
When to Take the MCAT Checklist
- You want your MCAT exam scores in hand by the time med school applications open in May of your application year—that’s over a year before you want to matriculate.
- The earliest you should consider taking the exam is the end of your sophomore year. The latest you want to take it is early May of your application year.
- The best time to take the MCAT depends on when you’re going to have the most quality time to study for it, and how much content you’ll have seen in school already. Thorough MCAT preparation, rather than taking the exam blind, makes a significant difference in hitting your goal MCAT score.
- When you take the MCAT also depends on the possibility of needing a retake (not always a necessity, but it happens).
- If you’re planning to take a gap year(s) after college, consider any time-based restrictions the programs you’re applying to might have.
- Make sure the MCAT test date you pick is a goal you can reasonably work towards, given your other commitments.
When Do You Take the MCAT?
First, let’s talk about when you can even take the MCAT. MCAT test dates are typically released each September. MCAT registration for the first half of the year opens in October, and registration for the second half opens the following February. You can take the MCAT from January through September, with multiple dates happening every month.
Further Reading
However, with ~30 MCAT test dates to choose from every year, how do you know when you should take the MCAT? Let’s keep going.
When Should I Take the MCAT?
The Early Bird Gets Their MCAT Score First
You’ve probably heard dozens of pre-med advisors and online forums (hi, Premed Reddit!) say you need to take the MCAT early—and for good reason. There are advantages to getting the MCAT done and over with sooner rather than later.
A big plus is that you get to focus on the other time-consuming parts of your medical school application: the personal statement and essays, work and activities pages, and the painstaking attention to detail required to input all coursework correctly.
Hopefully, an early MCAT gets the ball rolling enough that you also finish those applications ahead of schedule. This can be a huge advantage because many medical schools have rolling admissions, which means you’re competing with more people for fewer seats as the admission year marches on.
So, you have a better chance of getting into medical school if you apply early. An early MCAT test date and MCAT score that you’re happy with are a big part of doing this with confidence.
The flip side is that most medical school admission boards won’t look at your application until your MCAT is scored (even if they sent you a secondary application before then). We know MCAT scores come out about a month after you take the exam. The application services don’t open until early May, but won’t start verifying applications until mid-June.
That means the latest you want to take the MCAT is mid-May of your application year, a full 15 months before you plan to begin medical school.
It’s Gonna Be May?
“Ok, so I should take the MCAT in May?” Well, now we know why everyone swears by taking the MCAT in May. However, remember we said you should take it as early as possible. So, why wait until your application year to take it?
You can take the MCAT before your medical school application year, with some caveats. To optimize your MCAT prep time and increase your chances of scoring higher, you want to be familiar with most of the material on the MCAT (at least about 80% of it). For this reason, you might need to wait until fairly late in your sophomore year to take the MCAT, likely even the summer between sophomore and junior year. By then, you’ll have finished most of your medical school prerequisites and be better equipped for what the MCAT throws at you.
If you’d rather wait until you’re nearly done with your undergrad education, and take a gap year or two (which is increasingly common), then you should shoot for taking the exam between January and April of your final year.
Regardless of your application timing, an ideal goal is to have your MCAT score in hand at the start of your application process.
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How Long Does It Take To Study for the MCAT
MCAT prep timelines will vary from student to student. Most students spend three to six months preparing for the MCAT, but how long you should study for the MCAT depends on your personal schedule, score goals, and how much content review you need.
Here are a few MCAT prep timeline examples:
- 3 Months (Intensive Schedule):
Ideal for students studying full-time or during a gap semester. Expect to dedicate 25–35 hours per week to MCAT prep. Organizing your prep is key to ensuring you dedicate enough time to content review, practice, and reviewing your practice. - 4–5 Months (Moderate Schedule):
This is a common plan. You’ll study about 15–25 hours a week while balancing classes, work, or volunteering. It gives you time for deeper content review and practice while ensuring MCAT prep doesn’t take over your entire life. - 6+ Months (Extended Schedule):
Perfect if you’re balancing a heavy course load or want extra flexibility. Studying over a longer period helps prevent burnout.
The MCAT prep resources you choose also play a role in how long you should study. MCAT prep classes have set schedules (usually a minimum of six weeks), while self-paced MCAT prep and MCAT tutoring let you choose your own schedule.
No matter your timeline, what matters most is quality over quantity. Create a personalized study plan that organizes what to study each day and when to take full-length exams, ensuring you’re always progressing toward your score goal.
Can You Retake the MCAT?
Remember, you can take the MCAT more than once. In fact, you can take it three times during a testing year, four times over two consecutive years, and seven times total during your lifetime. And yes, voided tests or missed exam dates still count towards these restrictions. However, retaking the MCAT more than three times is not recommended without clear extenuating circumstances.
Medical schools are likely to view more frequent test takers as struggling with the necessary prerequisites and content. For this reason, your chances of acceptance are significantly reduced after the third try. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but aim to succeed earlier.
Plenty of medical students retake the MCAT once or twice.
When planning a retake, you’ll want to figure out how you can improve from the previous exam and take the steps (and time) to rebuild your MCAT knowledge and skills. That way, you’re more likely to see a score boost on your retake. If you find yourself in a situation thinking, “When should I take the MCAT…again?” remember to give yourself enough time between test dates to prep adequately and review what you went wrong last time.
The good news is that MCAT scores don’t expire. So far as AAMC is concerned, the score you got in sophomore year and the one you got in your senior year are both valid. However, some medical schools have additional limits. It’s most common for them to specify that your MCAT scores must have been earned within the past two to three years, depending on whether the cutoff date is your application or your matriculation. Double-check what restrictions your programs have in place, especially if you plan to take time off before pursuing your medical education.
Your MCAT Score Can Narrow Down Your Medical School List
Choosing to take the MCAT early in the process will not only allow you to devote more time to the plethora of forms to fill out and essays to write for the rest of your applications, but it can also help you decide where you want to apply. Your MCAT exam score can affect how competitive you are as an applicant.
So, when it comes to determining which programs to apply to, it helps to ask, “What is the average MCAT score?”, whether in general or for a specific school. You can do this before taking the MCAT or after receiving your score. Regardless, understanding what the MCAT averages are will help you determine which school to apply to. Nearly every school has an application fee, so creating a focused list will reduce application costs.
There’s little point in wasting your time and money applying to programs that admit few students in your score range. And the importance of rolling medical school admissions should not be underestimated. Sending your full medical school application as early as possible is key.
When Not To Take The MCAT
We’ve spent a lot of time discussing when to take MCAT, but it’s worth mentioning when you absolutely should NOT. Here are three red flags you should heed:
1. Scoring Poorly on an MCAT Practice Test
There’s a difference between scoring less than you hoped for and scoring badly. If you find yourself doing poorly on practice tests, odds are you need to spend more time reviewing content and getting comfortable with the test format.
It’s better to adjust your timeline and give yourself more time to review. What this means varies at different times in your study. A good rule of thumb is to push back an MCAT date if you’re in the last month of study without an official practice score within 10 points of your goal.
2. Unfamiliarity With the Material
The reason students wait until after their sophomore year of college to take the MCAT is so that the material isn’t brand new. However, you may find that after waiting, you still don’t recognize much of the material by then. Maybe you’re not tackling a good chunk of the content until the fall of your junior year. That’s okay. Everyone’s premed journey and schedules are different.
Taking the MCAT in May at the end of your third year still gets your score early enough, and there might even be enough time to fit in a retake. It’s better to wait and have a good grasp on MCAT concepts than to take the MCAT too early. No need to struggle through unfamiliar material that you’re going to learn in upcoming classes.
3. Too Much Going On
We know undergrad can be a hectic, crazy time. Your course load may be too packed one semester to even dream of having enough time to study for the MCAT. You may be balancing jobs and extracurriculars that make your schedule too variable to pencil in an exam date before summer.
Breathe and focus on addressing what’s important in those times. The MCAT can absolutely wait a little longer if the delay lets you be healthier from an academic, personal, or mental standpoint.
If you noticed, a trend in these red flags is that they all indicate the need for a proper MCAT study schedule. There’s no point taking the MCAT if you aren’t prepared for it. Most medical students schedule anywhere from twelve to twenty weeks of prep time for the MCAT exam. The MCAT is a hard test—don’t make it more difficult for yourself by rushing!
Final Thoughts
Deciding when to take the MCAT isn’t just about picking a test date. It’s about setting yourself up for success. The right timeline gives you enough space to understand content, do tons of practice questions and practice tests, and build endurance, so you can feel confident walking into test day.
If you’re still unsure, start by working backward from your target medical school application cycle and ask yourself a few key questions:
- How many months can I realistically dedicate to studying for the MCAT?
- Am I balancing classes, work, or other commitments?
- Do I want to leave room for a potential retake (just in case)?
There’s no one-size-fits-all timeline, but there is a strategy that works for you. Whether that’s a three-month sprint or a six-month marathon, planning early and following a structured study plan will make all the difference.
🎯 Next step: Build your personalized MCAT Study Plan with Blueprint’s free study planning tool. It takes just a few minutes and gives you a day-by-day schedule tailored to your test date, availability, and goals, so you can prep smarter, not harder.
No matter where you are in your premed journey, Blueprint MCAT is here to help when you’re ready to take the MCAT. Whether you need the flexibility of a Self-Paced Course, the instruction of a live 515+ Course, or the 1:1 attention of a private MCAT tutor, Blueprint MCAT has the MCAT prep option that works for your learning style!
